iBlog is a Mac blogging application, with support for iLife, .Mac, and several other publishing schemes.

Setting up iBlog may be tricky for the first-time blogger. When first launching the application, there is no help text or setup wizard. You are presented with iBlog's main window, and must proceed to set up the application from there. You can create a new blog from the main window, and can then create a new entry. However, this does not automatically set up an account on your blogging service. If you try to click on the 'Publish' button, you will be informed that no publishable blogs are set up. In order to create a "Publishable" blog, you must go to the Preferences, and set up blogging "locations". These locations must then be associated with existing blogs. This concept may be a bit difficult to understand at first, which might make setup challenging for some users. When properly understood, however, this feature can also offer a great deal of flexibility.

In the blog entry window, there are standard text and HTML formatting tools, as well as buttons to include music from iTunes, movies from iMovie, and photos from iPhoto. There is a space for entering an 'Abstract' of your entry, as well as a tool to automatically generate an abstract based on the body of your entry. Previous blog entries can be viewed and edited by way of a calendar tool in the main iBlog window.

Once you have set up "Publishable" blogs, you can send them to the server of your choice by clicking the 'Publish' button in the main window. This will connect to the appropriate server and refresh all of the files that have been created or updated by your recent blog entries.

To control the look and feel of your blog, there is a 'Layout' menu which lets you select a Navigation editor, Stylesheet manager, or Template manager. The navigation editor allows you to manage the links and other information that are displayed on every page of your blog. The stylesheet manager presents a graphical interface for changing the colors and styles of objects on your web page. I found this tool to be very easy to use, and helpful for coming up with a good color scheme for your blog. The template manager brings up a text editor that allows you to customize the structure of your page using "template tags". These tags insert various pieces of blog-related data into your entry before iBlog sends it to your server.

iBlog provides its own online documentation in the form of Mac OS Help. Simply go to the Help menu to bring up a searchable help document. This document covers all of iBlog's features.

iBlog has one interesting extra feature. In addition to being a blogging client, it is also a newsfeed reader. Newsfeeds are not the subject of this review, but a simple explanation follows: a newsfeed is a special file created by a blog or other serial publication which is readable by a computer program known as a newsfeed reader. Such programs can periodically check for updates on a given feed via the web, and then alert you that the feeds have been updated. You can then read newsbriefs directly in the application, without having to visit the website. iBlog provides this functionality.

As previously mentioned, the scheme of creating "blogs" separately from "locations" is a bit awkward. This functionality may be intended to enhance flexibility, but it is really more of a hassle than anything else.

iBlog is full of features and iLife integration, and is also compatible with a variety of publishing methods. Though it suffers from a confusing publishing setup, it may be a worthwhile choice for users who need iLife integration and the ability to publish to systems other than .Mac.

All of the contents of this site are copyright 2004 by Peter R. Wood, unless otherwise indicated. Email me if you have any questions.